It may not have the most elegant of titles, but How to Survive a Plague presents a valuable template for how grassroots activism can temper societal prejudice and challenge governmental indifference in the face of a mysterious and remorseless killer.

But it’s a more human tale than that, a documentary about people — dogged by prejudice and driven by desperation — who confront a new virus (AIDS) decimating their community, people who literally refuse to die.

The documentary, using footage shot between 1987 and 1995 with low-quality handheld cameras, chronicles the struggles of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (better known by its acronym, ACT UP) to stir governments and medical authorities into action.

As obnoxious and in-your-face their tactics were, the doc makes the persuasive case that the actions of ACT UP have saved countless lives by forcing those in power to examine their consciences and to speed up the approval of potentially life-saving drugs.

The scenes of emaciated AIDS-afflicted patients covered in Kaposi’s sarcoma — the sure sign of an immune system in total collapse — are very tough to watch.

Even tougher are appearances by people such as North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, a despicable bigot who bemoans that the word “gay” has been appropriated by the queer community, and former president George H.W. Bush, who plays a lot of golf while admonishing gay people in a patronizing tone to change their “behaviour.”

(ACT UP gets its revenge in one of the film’s precious few moments of levity.)

But there are plenty of real-life heroes and not just those who are HIV-positive, people like Iris Long, a chemist who comes out of retirement to lend her expertise to battling the virus.

The ultimate payoff for the film comes from seeing activists like Peter Staley, so young, determined and articulate, and firebrand playwright Larry Kramer, still alive and kicking so many years later. It is these final moments that make this harrowing true story so cathartically rewarding.

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